The story starts in the White House, where Monsanto often got its way by exerting disproportionate influence over policymakers via the “revolving door”. One example is Michael Taylor, who worked for Monsanto as an attorney before being appointed as deputy commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1991. While at the FDA, the authority that deals with all US food approvals, Taylor made crucial decisions that led to the approval of GE foods and crops. Then he returned to Monsanto, becoming the company’s vice president for public policy.
Thanks to these intimate links between Monsanto and government
agencies, the US adopted GE foods and crops without proper testing,
without consumer labeling and in spite of serious questions hanging over
their safety. Not coincidentally, Monsanto supplies 90 percent of the
GE seeds used by the US market.
Monsanto’s long arm stretched so far that, in the early
nineties, the US Food and Drugs Agency even ignored warnings of their
own scientists, who were cautioning that GE crops could cause negative
health effects. Other tactics the company uses to stifle concerns about
their products include misleading advertising, bribery and concealing
scientific evidence. (Excerpt
from greenpeace.org)